Viterbo – Birth reduction and school sizing at the center of the meeting in the province with the regional councilor Schiboni – The draft for observations arrives tomorrow – Good news from superintendent Peroni: “All first classes guaranteed for the new year”
by Giuseppe Ferlicca
Viterbo – 650 fewer students since last year. For schools in Tuscia this is the problem. The birth rate was at the center of the meeting with the regional councilor Giuseppe Schiboni (School), in the province, in the session dedicated to school sizing, with the councilors and mayors. Tomorrow the region will send a draft to which comments can then be made. Something new compared to the past.
Giuseppe Schiboni
There are 23 institutes to be merged in Lazio and if Maurizio Palozzi (Pd) would like to understand how many are affected by Viterbo, we can try to console ourselves with the criteria to be adopted in the meantime, only the numbers no longer count, as explained by councilor Schiboni and manager regional Agnese D’Alessio. There is greater autonomy in choosing, even in a complex situation.
Some good news was brought by the superintendent Daniele Peroni: “April 18 – explains Peroni – is the deadline by which the regional school office establishes the legal staffing of the schools.
Sabatini, Zelli, Romoli, Schiboni and D’Alessio
We closed in Viterbo and I think a good job was done. Despite the difficulties resulting from the strong birth rate, we managed to guarantee the opening of all the first classes that were requested. In this I would like to reassure all municipalities.”
Even with a less worrying sign. “Since last year there have been 650 fewer students, an enormous amount. A problem not only for Viterbo, but for all of Italy.”
Daniele Peroni
Schiboni also underlined it, trying to play it down. “The birth rate is the real issue – says Schiboni – but don’t ask me, I have already had four children”. Going off the bat: “This year we want to reverse the sizing process. Today we have a draft to share with the province and interested parties. Until now, the regional council approved the guidelines and then sent them to the provinces.
The planning of the school network must take into consideration various aspects, from connections to structural equipment and complementary services”.
Something is changed. “In 2011 – recalls the regional manager Agnese D’Alessio who deals with sizing – an exclusively numerical criterion was followed, with schools that did not reach 600 pupils as an indication. A simple numerical calculation. The rule has been modified since 2022, giving the regions the possibility to manage the overall number of school autonomies.
Romoli and Schiboni
The number of managers is defined by the government and communicated to the regions which apply it independently”.
A meeting, the one at Palazzo Gentili, useful, as the president of the province Alessandro Romoli recalled, for anticipating the times: “Putting together proposals, then to be submitted to the region in a participatory manner.
The low birth rate is the problem, in small municipalities there are 5 or six births in a year and it is difficult to train primary school classes”.
Also in the room were regional councilors Giulio Zelli and Daniele Sabatini. And if the former is happy with the fact that this year no classes will be lost, Sabatini underlines the consultation with the territories is an important step: “Tackling the issue of sizing in April had never happened, as we say, it has always spoken after Santa Rosa or in any case after the summer”.
Giuseppe Ferlicca
We receive and publish the official press release from the Region
Meetings between the Lazio Region and the provincial councils began today. Objective, to open the dialogue on the draft guidelines for the planning of the 2025/2026 regional school network. The initiative strongly supported by the councilor for Work, School, Training, Research and Merit of the Lazio Region, Giuseppe Schiboni, started from the Province of Viterbo, which will be followed by the other Provinces of Lazio.
Present at the meeting were the president, Alessandro Romoli, the mayors of the area, the group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the regional council, Daniele Sabatini, the regional councilor, Giulio Zelli, the social partners and all the school bodies involved.
“We have based the definition of this document on dialogue and discussion, respecting the peculiarities of everyone and the territories and needs of individual communities. In fact, in this way, reversing the logic followed so far, we have chosen to bring the discussion back to the territories, in the name of responsibility and institutional collaboration.
As the Lazio Region we intend to take into consideration social dynamics, the connection and transport system. Also taking into account the structural equipment of the buildings, also in relation to the school building interventions planned and under construction, and the real opportunities for the inclusion of young people in a working context”.
This was declared by the councilor for Work, School, Training, Research and Merit of the Lazio Region, Giuseppe Schiboni.
Among the novelties of this plan, in fact, there is the desire to decide and rationalize the educational offer of high schools. All in the name of homogeneity and with a view to having an impact on employment. Precisely for this reason, during the provincial council, Agnese D’Alessio, regional director of the area for the right to school and university education, illustrated the planning draft from a technical point of view.
For the 2025-2026 school year, the reorganization measures of the school network may include the merging, disaggregation and change of aggregation of the 1st cycle and 2nd cycle educational institutions (didactic managements, comprehensive institutes, lower secondary schools , secondary schools) present in the regional territory or parts of them (plexes, detached sections or branches).
The Municipalities, the Provinces and the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in identifying the educational institutions on which to intervene, will have to take into account the various territorial specificities and, in particular, the need to safeguard the school principals present in the mountain municipalities, on the islands of the Pontine archipelago and in particularly isolated or disadvantaged territories.
“The draft will be shared with all the Provinces, with the social partners and with all the school bodies. The key word is concentration. The purpose and priority are to increase and improve services to support young people with choices that must be measured on the actual needs of the territories. With a view to development, quality and efficiency of the entire training system”, concluded the councilor of the Lazio Region, Giuseppe Schiboni.
April 16, 2024
Tags: year pupils Tuscia schools
